I don't think you can display arbitrary cards during an encounter, since by the rules, you can only play cards or use powers while doing something if it has a direct impact on what you are doing.
So you can't do that for the check to defeat unless you are using a related skill from one of the cards for your check, and you certainly can't do that while you could reduce damage, because the power has no impact on damage.
You could, at most, display all his cards before the encounter, as far as I understood his powers, since then you are not doing something. There is a debate about it in another thread, and I'm sure someone will chime in here and say what the result of this discussion was.
Once you're inside the encounter, you cannot display arbitrary cards, no. You can display cards that provide a relevant skill for that encounter, only.
Same reason you can't cast a Cure during an encounter.
This said, if you know you are going to encounter the bad guy BEFORE encountering it (because you scouted, because it's the last card in the location, or for any other valid reason), and you just have a small chance to win (if you don't have any, why explore?), then displaying everything and then exploring is a good strategy. It allows you to take your small chance to win without any risk.
As not-this-Mike very cleverly pointed at, Mavaro is a whole new game by himself.
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This said, if you know you are going to encounter the bad guy BEFORE encountering it (because you scouted, because it's the last card in the location, or for any other valid reason), and you just have a small chance to win (if you don't have any, why explore?), then displaying everything and then exploring is a good strategy. It allows you to take your small chance to win without any risk.
As not-this-Mike very cleverly pointed at, Mavaro is a whole new game by himself.
I'm still, personally, wholeheartedly against this style of Mavaro play. There is a general rule that you can only play cards when you can make use of them, and if you're not using the skills, you can't display the cards.
I'm still, personally, wholeheartedly against this style of Mavaro play. There is a general rule that you can only play cards when you can make use of them, and if you're not using the skills, you can't display the cards.This said, if you know you are going to encounter the bad guy BEFORE encountering it (because you scouted, because it's the last card in the location, or for any other valid reason), and you just have a small chance to win (if you don't have any, why explore?), then displaying everything and then exploring is a good strategy. It allows you to take your small chance to win without any risk.
As not-this-Mike very cleverly pointed at, Mavaro is a whole new game by himself.
Hi Cartman,
I both agree and disagree (IMHO), I agree because it doesn't feels like playing a real RPG character, and then I disagree because of the whole idea in the PACG that sometimes you have to display cards (e. g. spells that buff you for a whole turn) before you know whether they will be of any use, which indeed "unfortunately" "allows" Mavaro to follow (abuse?) the same pattern.The one thing that I see counterbalancing it is that if Mavaro plays too much the display game, he doesn't explore a lot. Which in our case (a group of 6 players) is enough of a drawback to force him to not exploit the system. But I see how it could be an issue maybe with a smaller group (although I will certainly never know since anytime I get the box out, at least 5 guys jump on my table).
I'm still, personally, wholeheartedly against this style of Mavaro play. There is a general rule that you can only play cards when you can make use of them, and if you're not using the skills, you can't display the cards.
Actually, the general rule is "You can play cards and use powers without limit in between these steps, as long as they don’t say they can only be played at certain times." (Mummy's Mask pg 7, emphasis mine)
Page 9 further clarifies "If a card in your hand does not specify when it can be played, you can generally play it anytime you can play cards, with the exception that during an encounter you may only perform specific actions at specific times."
So the restriction on playing cards only when you can use them is only during encounters, where page 9 states in the Encountering a Card section that "Characters may only play cards or use powers that relate to each step (or relate to cards played or powers used in that step)."
Question: Zadim can recharge a card to examine the top card of his deck. If he does this once and sees the next card, can he recharge another card to examine it again? If not, why not? And if so, how is "examining an already examined card" different than "gaining a skill that you will not use"?
I'm pretty sure this topic was discussed at great length in another thread, and the general consensus was that Mavaro can display as many cards as he wants as long as each card is granting him a new skill. Otherwise, you'd just be displaying cards for the sake of displaying them and they would have no other immediate effect.
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Hm... Vogrin makes a good point. I didn't realize which sections these rules were actually placed under. In that case, I rescind my dislike of that particular playstyle. I probably still won't be recharging Mavaro's whole hand at the end of his turn, which has been suggested, but it seems as if it's totally within the realm of the rules to do so, as long as you're not in an encounter.
Responding to Vogrin -- the difficulty is we also have the rule:
You may not activate a power or play a card that doesn’t apply to your current situation.
This is why you can't play a Cure on a character with no cards in their discard pile.
Or as Vic says you can't use Adowyn's power to search your deck for a cohort when you know you don't have a cohort in your deck.So, it's not true that there is no restriction on using powers or playing cards outside of encounters.
(I think "without limit" just means that you can use a power repeatedly, or play multiple cards; not that there are no restrictions.)
Similarly, Zadim is not allowed to recharge multiple cards to re-examine a card he has already examined.
Similarly, Zadim is not allowed to recharge multiple cards to re-examine a card he has already examined.
How come? There's no rule that I would read to such effect, and this is exactly what I (and I suspect many other people) were doing with Adowyin to cycle her hand.
EDIT:
You may not activate a power or play a card that doesn’t apply to your current situation.This is why you can't play a Cure on a character with no cards in their discard pile.
The difference here is - you know your Cure "doesn't apply', as you know you have no cards in your discard to be affected, and you're basically "cheating" your way into getting the Cure out of your hand. With Zadim et al.'s recharges - there is a top card of the location deck to be examined (I think we all agree you can't 'examine' an empty location - which is the real analogy with Cure), and the fact that you *know* what the top card of a location deck is doesn't change that you're allowed to "examine the top card of your location deck". Consider this: at the start of the scenario, you scout the villain on top of a deck - cool! Then you go about your business, closing locations and booning, and an hour later - you're ready for the big showdown. Problem is, you have the vague recollection the villain had some nasty conditions, that you'd like to be ready for, but of course by now you forgot what they are. Would you rule that Zadim is forbidden to examine the Villain again, just because he did so 20 turn ago?
I probably still won't be recharging Mavaro's whole hand at the end of his turn, which has been suggested...
I think I mentioned it in the other thread, but , while it's OK to optimize your hand for a particular challenge you know is coming up (especially towards the end game), if you find yourself regularly recharging Mavaro's entire hand - you're probably having the wrong *deck* to begin with. I'm playing Mavaro, and I find myself recharging only 1 or 2 cards at most - usually cards that grant duplicate skills, or extra armor.
Except when arule precisely tells you that you cannot do something twice, cards have no memory. This is a golden rule. So neither Zadim recalls having examined, neither the first card remembers to have been examined.
So IMHO nothing prevents Zadim from reexamining the same card... as long as there is a card to examine.
For what it's worth, I never used Adowyn to repeatedly examine the same card multiple times just to recharge my hand, as I felt that was against the spirit of the rules if not the letter. Vic's "think bigger, cheater" quote I think is what influenced me here -- cards may not have memories but players do, so unless you legitimately forgot what the top card was and you're a stickler about not flipping it over again to read it unless you play an examine power or the card is a trigger so each examine has the trigger go off, I rule that you can't examine the same card multiple times.
For Mavaro, as long as each use of the power grants a skill you didn't previously have, I think you can display your whole hand. There are plenty of skills to choose from so that probably won't be an issue.
Regarding Longshot's Zadim point, who here plays, if they have scouted a villain to the top of a deck, that they have to use a power to look at that card 20 turns later? We just look at it. You already scouted him. (Or, now, we just turn an examined card face up, like Vic does).
The question is, should Zadim be able to recharge a card, to "examine" a card the player has already examined? I don't see this as any different from an Adowyn player searching their deck for a cohort when they know there is no cohort there, and Vic says you can't do that.
Examining gives you knowledge about what card is next. If you already have that knowledge, examining doesn't apply to your situation.
What if there was a hypothetical card called 'trigger happy' that has the trigger trait and lets you draw and then recharge a card upon examining, and stays on top of the location deck afterwards.
Would you allow to examine it multiple times, even though the player already knows the top card?
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The post with Vic's quote "think bigger, cheater" refers to when you would want to search your deck for a cohort and KNOW that there is no cohort in your deck. In that case, you'd be cheating because you are using a power that should not apply to your situation. Similarly, you would be cheating if you were to use a power that let you examine the top card of a location deck which has no cards. It's really not the same thing when there is a top card to be examined.
I agree with that.
Also, the Trigger trait means that some cards clearly have an effect when you examine them, and those effects will obviously go off a second time if you examine it a second time. It sure would be weird to say that that you can examine *this* card twice, but you can't examine *that* card twice...
Shot down by the man himself. Live and learn...
The post with Vic's quote "think bigger, cheater" refers to when you would want to search your deck for a cohort and KNOW that there is no cohort in your deck. In that case, you'd be cheating because you are using a power that should not apply to your situation. Similarly, you would be cheating if you were to use a power that let you examine the top card of a location deck which has no cards. It's really not the same thing when there is a top card to be examined.I agree with that.
Also, the Trigger trait means that some cards clearly have an effect when you examine them, and those effects will obviously go off a second time if you examine it a second time. It sure would be weird to say that that you can examine *this* card twice, but you can't examine *that* card twice...
Fair enough, but I think I prefer to continue playing on "hard mode." Even if it isn't actually against the rules, it feels a bit too cheesy for me.